Posting this for a non-subscribing researcher
:
Sounds on roofs:
In chapter nine of Mark Twain's Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Tom sneaks out of
his bedroom late at night by climbing "out of the window and creeping along [a]
roof . . . on all fours. He 'meow[s]' with caution once or twice, as he
[goes]; then jump[s] to the roof of the woodshed and thence to the ground." The
obvious reason for Tom's cautious meowing, although not stated by Twain, is to
deceive anyone who might hear him moving along the roof into thinking that
the noise is being made by a cat.
I would appreciate similar references in fiction or historical accounts of
any provenance in which individuals on a rooftop for any reason are said to make
certain noises in order to deceive others as to the true nature of the sounds
they hear originating from the roof.
email address: wilcoxen@earthlink.net
mailing address: Ralph Wilcoxen, 1410 Milvia Street / Berkeley, CA
94709-1917
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